In 2013, Global Inheritance partnered with Coachella Music & Arts Festival to present the ‘Oasis Water Bar’. This initiative focuses on bringing awareness to the complexities and challenges we face regarding the future of drinking water. Festival-goers can learn about where their drinking water comes from today, what they might be drinking five years from now and even what they may be drinking 20 or 30 years in the future. The Oasis features bartenders/scientists who are experts in water conservation and innovation who interact with water bar patrons, providing information and a better understanding on their own water consumption. Everyone visiting The Oasis is offered up to 3 different shots of water to sample while learning the backstory of each source. Every Oasis water type is individually custom-bottled/labelled and displayed behind the bar to promote the programme and water sources. Over 14 different water sources are highlighted at The Oasis including Purified Wastewater, Desalinated Pacific Ocean Water, Los Angeles Tap Water, Glacier Water, Rainwater, Hot Spring Water, and several more....

Taking the initiative to store materials from last year’s event is providing organizations an opportunity to upcycle and resell unique products at their next event. Billboard Ecology are a company aiming to bring this vision to life by salvaging advertising billboards and creating individually styled tote bags along with other unique products. The Cherry Creek Arts Festival, one of the USA’s top arts festivals, held every year in Denver, has embraced this initiative. Over the years the event coordinator has collected banners and through Billboard Ecology, they have been repurposed into beach bags, shopping totes, and unique Kindle covers. These were all sold within the festival in the merchandise stands alongside the usual t-shirts, water bottles, posters and other items. An added advantage of this re-purposing of products is that sponsors of the events get another chance at their logo being displayed on one of these creatively inspired new products. Other festivals embracing the idea of repurposing their event banners include Belmar Italian Festival and Starz Film Festival who each have created custom tote bags and wine bottle bags given out as gifts at VIP events....

Sustainable Table uses food as an entrée to explore sustainability issues. With up to 60% of our eco-footprint embodied in the food that we buy there is no better place to start. We are working to build an engaged community of people who want to learn about sustainable food production and how they can support a fair food system for all. By designing challenging and creative events with our restaurant and community partners, tapping into social media networks, providing business consulting services and sharing stories and learnings through our blog site, we are empowering people to overcome today’s environmental challenges, one meal at a time. Sustainable Table was approached by the organisers of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival to invigorate a space at their opening weekend event at the historic Como House in South Yarra, Melbourne. A Sustainable Seafood Square was developed, which engaged local fishermen and seafood producers in a space that generated awareness around the issues we are facing in terms of the sustainability of our oceans, waterways and fish populations. A number of free cooking classes were hosted by Oliver Edwards, Founder of GoodFishBadFish who demonstrated how to cook with more sustainable, yet sometimes less popular fish species such as mullet. The event space was plastic free and was enlivened with posters and sea sculptures made from discarded soy sauce containers and plastic salvaged from the ocean, created by artist Gaby Jung. An informational Fishy Business video was created by Sustainable Table and played throughout the weekend, whilst visitors were also given take-home information that included a wallet fish guide sustainabletable.org.au | goodfishbadfish.com.au...

Music festival Way Out West (WOW) in Sweden takes their sustainability performance seriously and catering has been taken one step further with a requirement for seasonal and local sourcing, under the responsibility of Restaurant Wasa Allé and Mats Nordström who has won multiple rewards for their organic cuisine. All vendors at Way Out West must work in an ecological approach and be ‘environmentally smart’. That means organic, fair and eco-labeled. Way Out West is the first festival in Sweden to be KRAV-certified. In 2012, WOW took the next step to reduce the event’s GHG emissions. Studies have shown that food was the biggest environmental thief, with the meat by far the worst. The big decision of making WOW a full vegetarian festival was taken and announced through social media, creating lots of reactions, debates, articles. The ecological footprint of the festival was reduced by 23.9% although visitor numbers increased by 19%. The impact from the catering reduced from 62% to 37% of the total ecological footprint. The environmental impact per visitor was reduced by 40%. To calculate the Ecological Footprint the online EPA Event Calculator[i] was used. Data was collected from the festival organizer and through a survey to visitors across five categories of resource-use: energy use, transport, waste, consumption of food and lodging and total surface of the festival used. www.wayoutwest.se [i] EPA Event Calculator –...